


We Had Right From the Start

by ThePackWantstheD



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Gen, Kinda?, M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Wedding Rings, also only kinda?, their actually quadrant rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 03:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2532164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a truth universally acknowledged that for any given quadrant there is one perfect match.</p><p>Or: A series of events show Eridan and Feferi that they had it right in the beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Had Right From the Start

**Author's Note:**

> It didn't turn out quite as well as I wanted but I do think it turned out nice and I hope you guys enjoy it.

* * *

 

Eridan sprawled out along the couch. His head rested in Aradia's lap while his feet rested in Nepeta's. She was humming and tapping a soft rhythm on his ankle. Equius was settled on the floor. While he was mostly focused on fiddling with Nepeta's phone, he had leaned back so his head rested against Eridan's hip. 

Thee were a lot of things Eridan didn't understand about this new world. While this new friendship between the four of them was certainly one of them, it was also one of things he treasured most. Especially in times like this when he was coming apart at the seams.

"Eridan," Aradia said, her voice gentle as her fingers tugged on strands of purple hair. "We have to talk about this."

"No we don't," Eridan answered. "We can just sit here and relax like we've been doing."

"You terrified us," Aradia continued, ignoring his protests. "You showed up here ranting about angels and how you should have listened. You were hyperventilating. It wasn't any better when we tried to get your gills to breathe for you and Equius couldn't shoosh you. We were terrified. We thought we were going to lose you, Eridan."

Eridan glanced down at Equius. The purple quadrant ring on his finger - an addition to their culture from the human's side of things. They said it reminded them of wedding rings - was a stark contrast to the gray of his skin. The back of the ring was a solid piece of purple metal while the front split into two waves, Eridan's symbol. Both it and the olive ring above it were polished and clean. It was a testament to how much Equius cared to Nepeta and Eridan that he refused to let them get even a little dirty.

Guilt stabbed through him for making Equius worry about him like that.

"I'm so sorry." He reached to curl his hand in Equius' hair. The blueblood leaned into the touch. "I didn't mean to scare you like that." He looked back at Nepeta and Aradia. "Any of you."

 "We know," Aradia assured. "But we need to fix this before something happens and none of us are able to help."

"How? You just said nothing was working."

There was a moment of silence as his three companions glanced between each other. 

It was Nepeta who answered, "We think you need a moirail."

His whole body tightened and bile rose in his throat. He forced the thoughts of fuchsia text and hunting trips out of his mind and forced out of his mouth, "I don't have much luck in that quadrant but okay. Who are you suggesting? Aradia?"

"You know I can't," she said. He did know. He could feel Dave's ring pressing against his scalp as she played with her hair. And he had intimate experience with having to help Aradia reach him when there were bodies piling up in her vision. 

"Yeah," he said at last. "Rose then? Since Roxy and Karkat are the only other people I'm close to and they've got Dirk and Gamzee respectively."

There were a lot of moirails nowdays. Sburb had left them all too ruined to survive without them.

"Not Rose either," Aradia denied. 

Equius said, "You know there is only one perfect match for each quadrant."

"What's that got to do with this?" Eridan questioned.

Nepeta didn't beat around the bush with her reply, instead sounding very excited as she said, "You should talk to Feferi."

Eridan's stomach lurched. 

He threw himself off of the couch, barely avoiding kicking Equius in the head. 

"Eridan!" Aradia called after him. "You can't run away from this."

"No," he shouted back as he opened the door. "She isn't my perfect diamond. She didn't want me before the game and she won't want me now. Especially not after what I did to her."

* * *

 Eridan went to the ocean. 

Unlike other sea dwellers, Eridan preferred land over water. He was willing to be honest about that now. But that didn't mean that water didn't relax and calm him the way it did for other sea dwellers. 

He stripped off his clothes until he wearing just his boxers. Since he hadn't been planning on swimming, he hadn't worn his waterproof clothes. He hesitated before adding Equius' matespirit ring to the pile. It was water proof but he had no idea what the underwater currents were like. The idea that it could get swept off and lost was an idea that made his stomach churn even more. 

When all of his clothes were in a carefully folded pile, he took a running jump off the pier and dove into the lake.

There was a sharp pain as his body switched around it's respiratory passages, but then it faded away. As it left, he was left with only the feeling of water creeping across his skin. 

He let his body take him were it wanted. He spun around and made faces at passing schools of fish. Occasionally other sea dwellers would go past, coming from the near by underwater city or returning from land, but Eridan chose to ignore them completely.

He was swimming alongside a dolphin when he heard his name. 

"Eridan! Oh my _glub_ , finally!"

"Feferi." The feeling in his stomach from Nepeta's suggestion only seemed to grow worse with the appearance of the fuchsia blood. She was swimming towards him in small black shorts and a white halter top with ruffles and black polka dots. He'd seen her around school in various other swimsuits like that one. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you! Aradia called me and said you were missing," Feferi answered. She floated in front of him. "She said Equius was really really scared! You shouldn't do that to people in your quadrants!"

"Yeah...I should have known better. He worries about me a lot." He glanced around nervous before saying, "You can go now. Tell him I'll come see him after I'm done. I just need a few more minutes to calm down."

Her eyebrows knitted together. She swam around him, her eyes racking over his body. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need help with something or-"

"Stop!" Eridan commanded, a little more harshly then he'd meant. She jerked to a stop. "I don't fucking need you to get all worried about me like we're still fucking pale or something! I'm not a fucking grub!" He could feel that he was letting himself get to worked up, could feel the gate of memories from the game creaking open, but now that he had started he could stop. They'd been on this planet for years now and not once had he had a conversation with Feferi that aired out all of his feelings about what had happened. "I can take care of myself! And even if I can't I have a matespirit who can keep me from doing something so incredibly dumb and stupid as killing the only person who could stand me."

"That isn't, wasn't, true," Feferi said. "Kanaya and Karkat cared about you as much as I did. They've forgiven you."

"But you haven't, Fef. And you're the only one who I want to forgive me," he exclaimed. "They were my friends, my only friends back then, but they weren't someone I would ever seriously consider for a quadrant if I hadn't been so desperate to fix what you'd done to me. They hadn't been my moirail since we were four sweeps."

"Oh Eridan...I have forgiven you. I was never upset with you. I shouldn't have done things the way I did them. I knew you were unstable but I was just so tired. Neither of us handled it well."

He was about to say something else when the world slipped away from him. 

The last thing he heard was her shouting his name, "Eridan!"

* * *

When he woke up, Eridan felt something warm in his hands. 

Peeking his eyes open, he found Equius and Feferi were sitting in the chairs on either side of his bed. Equius' head was resting against his thigh and he was holding his hand so lightly that Eridan was almost inclined to thinking he was secretly awake. Feferi on the other hand had her head rolled back against the back of her chair. Their hands were intertwined and hanging loosely off the side of the chair. 

"Oh. You're up." 

Looking up, he found Sollux standing in the doorway. 

"Where am I?" Eridan questioned. 

"Hospital. You passed out while underwater," Sollux declared as he stepped inside. "Jane said you looked like you were fine but FF and EQ were worried and thought it was best to bring you here. They were really worried about you, prick."

"Oh."

There was silence for a moment. Eridan turned his head so he was looking at Equius instead, trying to figure out whether he could kiss the worry lines off the bluebloods face once he woke up or if he would be upset with that on account of Feferi's presence. 

There was the sigh and the sound of a zipper before Sollux said, "She asked me to bring you this." Eridan looked up just in time to catch the black box Sollux threw at him. "It's beyond me why, but she fucking loves you and doesn't want anything to happen to you. It kills me to admit this, but she fucking needs you as much as you need her. I can't do anything to save her from the things in her head."

Swinging his backpack back over his shoulder, Sollux dropped a fuchsia peacoat onto the bed and then walked back out of the room. 

Eridan stared after him for a minute before examining the box in his hands. 

He popped the top open and felt himself go still. 

Feferi's moirail ring was sitting inside the box. The pink metal was shining in the light and there were small purple gems in the shapes of diamonds embedded into it. Almost as though Feferi had known from their arrival on the planet that it would make it's way to Eridan.

"Put it on." Feferi's voice was tired. When he looked over at her, he found she was smiling a sleepy smile at him. 

"I don't have mine on me..."

"It's okay. Someone can bring it over later." She squeezed his hand. "Please put it on?"

He was quiet for a second before saying, "You have to do it for me. Equius isn't letting go of my other anytime soon."

"I can do that." 

* * *

  



End file.
